K9 ladder install on LR4...PITA

ezzzzzzz

Well-known member
Apr 22, 2010
604
7
SE Va
I wanted to add the ladder to the K9 rack I had previously installed. The rack install went smoothly but had a crap load of bolts/nuts to tighten. The ladder was another story all together. First of all, it cost $160 which IMHO meant it should have fit right out of the box, not so much. The instructions say remove the upper hatch inner panel and then the license plate lamp panel which was easy enough. I did have one of the inserts in the lamp panel that stripped out due to screw corrosion. Once that panel was off I got the screw and insert separated and epoxied the insert back into it's location. Instructions say to open the hatch and carefully fit the upper ladder through the available slot so as not to scratch the paint. That went okay but it is a tight fit. Next fit the retainer using one of the hinge bolts (left side). Okay, done. It was when I tried to line up the holes at the bottom that it went to hell. Nothing I tried would allow the holes to line up and provide enough thread to install 3 previously removed 10mm nuts. I looked up to see the slot in the upper ladder bracket was not wide enough to clear the hinge pin so it had to come off for modification. Oh, it doesn't come back off and incidentally caused some clear coat to get scratched trying. I ended up removing both hinge bolts (which should have been stated from the beginning) so I could remove the ladder. Several minutes later, with the help of a cutoff tool and a file, the slot was wide enough to clear the hinge (about 1/2" both sides). I reinstalled the ladder with both hinge bolts out (MUCH easier) and replaced those bolts and retainer. The holes were closer to alignment but not perfect. I fought and fought until I was able to compress the lower ladder bracket foam to get a thread started on the left outer 10mm nut. Working across I fitted the next but the third was hanging on the sheetmetal hole in the hatch. The hardware came back out. I had to climb up on a stool and smack the top of the ladder platform with a leather mallet to bend it downward on the PS of the ladder. Finally, the holes lined up. I installed the remaining hardware being careful not to catch the lamp panel on the ladder bracket overhang. What should have taken 1 hour at most required 2.5 hours with all of the 'fixing' and 'adjusting'. The final product looks good and is functional but required way too much modification for a 'simple' $160 add-on part. In retrospect, the lower ladder should have had only 3 holes that required threaded inserts in the upper hatch instead of the convoluted bracketry even though it would have meant marking and drilling into the hatch. It's just a freaking Land Rover anyhow.